prepping for library instruction

[bunnyjadwiga]

Working up to creating library support material for a first year student course called "Why Do We Eat That?” taught by an anthropologist.

Reading Everyone eats : understanding food and culture by E.N. Anderson, I find that her perspective is quite clear ("most unfortunate of all, however, are the wasteful eating habits of those who can afford to ignore the poor and needy. Too much grain that could go to the poor is fed to chickens and cows. Too much farmland is producing luxury crops of no nutritional value..." Which crops are those? The author is writing in 2005; is she talking about flowers? what? Also I have to admit that I wonder what the environmental/poverty impact is, for instance, of "Morningstar Veggie Burgers"...)

Still, here's a lyrical (if overly idealistic) tribute to food developers:

... Who developed the staple foods that support us? Who created the wondrous variety and complexity of cuisines that so greatly enrich our lives? The answer is thought provoking... Millions and millions of humble, gentle, caring human beings-- farmers and homemakers, innkeepers and famine relief workers, lovers and helpers00 gave us the benefit of their insight, brilliance, creativity, and labor. To the familiar record of oppression and exploitation, they counterpose a hidden record of generousity, concern, and responsibility. We do not know who they were. We know nothing about them. They live on, but only in the silence of bread, the calm of a bowl of rice, the joy of wine, the light of a cup of coffee.
Strange immortality! To help so much, to pour the goodness and care of life into the most neglected and most important of everyday things, and then to be forgotten. Perhaps they did not care; perhaps they felt that fame is for those who have nothing better to leave...

(Anderson, p. 2)

Comments

wasting grain on meat animals

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

I think the idea that food animals eat grain that could be more usefully be given directly to humans goes right back to the early environmental movement and Diet for a Small Planet. It's one of the major arguments for vegetarianism on the environmental side.

Animal rights people have picked this up as a sub-argument, but they often downplay it because of food for non-meat-producing pets.

Re: wasting grain on meat animals

[snooness2]

Feed grain is significantly enough different from grain we eat that I wouldn't want to eat it.

In a lot of cases it's not the amount of grain that's the problem when it comes to starvation it's the infrastructure to both pay the farmers and transport the crops that's the problem.

This person has certianly idealized farmers and farming...
"counterpose a hidden record of generousity, concern, and responsibility"
ummm... they were trying to grow the best stuff they could to feed thier families and have enough left to take to market so they could survive.
And the fact they think plowing land and planting monocultures isn't a horribly destructive and violent act makes me wonder. If they've ever seen two farmers go at it if one moves his fence onto the other's land they might come to a different conclusion.